India growing faster than China, says Mark Mobius: report

Focus should be on implementing GST, he told The Economic Times newspaper

Mark Mobius, executive chairman, Templeton Emerging Markets Group at Franklin Templeton Investments said in an interview with Economic Times that India is in a takeoff stage and is growing faster than China. Here are the five key things he said in the interview.

On US Federal Reserve rate hike

The US Federal Reserve is looking at is how employment is going and how actual inflation is going. If they do something, it will be very small.

On Indian market and China

Indian market is not expensive. As long as interest rates are low and are trending lower, we can justify higher valuations. India is growing faster than China now and India is at a takeoff stage but China is still our top bet in terms of emerging markets because China gives us more number of choices. Variety of companies are available to us.

On Urjit Patel as the new RBI governor

Replacing Raghuram Rajan with his deputy will bring continuity. Urjit won't be outspoken and probably will be more responsive to the requirement of the political elite.

On his preferred sectors in the Indian markets

We like pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals have not performed recently because of the problems with the US FDA but I believe this would be resolved. Indian software firms are very competitive on a global basis, so they will do well. Commodities is one area where we have to be cautious. 

On GST

Parliament passing GST is a good news. It will take around one year to implement GST. Now each of the individual states have to pass it and then it has to be actually implemented. The focus should be on implementing the GST.